School Counselors

We know that as a school counselor, you play a vital role in your students’ lives. In addition to supporting academic achievement and social/emotional development, you’re the person students turn to for college and career planning. With everything that’s going on, how can you keep up with the ever-changing world of work? And how can you engage students in this important process?

Today's students have career options that didn't exist a decade ago. They can, for example, go after a career as an app developer, a sustainability director, or data scientist. The same is true for college majors, such as in bioinformatics and bioengineering.

Career Girls can help you stay ahead by providing high-quality, commercial-free resources for career development. From exploring wide-ranging careers to learning the importance of integrity and teamwork, your students can use this video-based platform to expand their horizons and learn what it takes to turn a skill, interest, or dream into a career.

The Empowerment Lessons are a great place to get started.

Using the Empowerment Lessons

Clear and easy-to-use, the Empowerment Lessons are a high-quality, no-cost career guidance and development tool designed by experienced educators. Career-Based Empowerment Lessons are centered around career exploration, and Skill-Based Empowerment Lessons focus on social and emotional learning (SEL) with key topics such as teamwork, confidence, communication, leadership, financial literacy, and the importance of integrity.

Each lesson centers around a short video clip that features real-world role models who share straight-to-the-point career insights and advice. These videos are paired with ready-to-use educational resources that build on essential concepts.

The Empowerment Lessons are suitable for use with individual students as well as small and large groups. You can integrate these lessons into your career development program with just a few simple steps:

Download the Corresponding Resources. Each Empowerment Lesson has a corresponding set of resources accessible on each video page (see example) and can also be accessed individually through the Resources module at the bottom of this page. Print the PDFs you'd like to make available to students.

View the Video with Students. It may be helpful to preview the video first, noting information that is particularly relevant or vocabulary you might want to review. For example, many students struggle with a lack of confidence at one time or another. This can be particularly true when it comes to college planning. When sharing Be Confident, discuss what confidence means to students: Is confidence something you get all at once or something that builds? What are some things you feel confident about? How did you gain confidence in this area? What would you like to have more confidence in?

Use the corresponding resources alongside the video to deepen understanding:

Independent Learning Guide: (see example) This guide is designed to engage girls in digging deeper into concepts introduced in the videos. Students can complete this guide on their own, but you'll find that it's also a great tool for sparking meaningful conversations with lasting impact.

Classroom Lesson Plan: (see example) While designed for teachers, you may find this resource helpful for taking an in-depth look at topics of particular interest to students.

Fun Page Activity: (see example) Students can complete this fun activity to connect what they learned in the video to their own lives.

Use the "Positively Empowered!" Certificate. Goal-setting is important in school and beyond. The Positively Empowered! certificate provides an easy and concrete way to help the students you work with set personal goals for developing the skills and knowledge they need to go after their dreams — and see evidence of the steps they're taking to get there.

Using the Career Exploration Tools

Along with ready-to-use Empowerment Lessons, Career Girls offers built-in career exploration tools to engage girls in expanding career awareness, imagining what's possible, and taking important steps to plan for their futures.

The free Career Quiz is a fun place to start. This quick and easy quiz helps girls discover careers that may be a match for their skills and interests, with links to role models who can help them learn more. Girls who are natural problem-solvers, for example, can meet Makeda Keegan, an IT Systems Manager. Makeda encourages girls not to be afraid of software and coding. More important than being good at math, she explains, is being "curious, enthusiastic, and thorough."

Make sure your students are aware of our Student Resources. The printable resources promote independence, providing tools girls can use to track careers they explore and connect those careers to their own interests and goals. Consider making copies of the motivational posters (see example) to display in your office. These colorful posters share powerful advice from real-life role models to help girls develop the determination and perseverance they need to go after their dreams. Girls may want to take a poster home to remind them everyday of what they can achieve.

Use Our School Counselor Resources

Use the Resources module below to find these additional school counselor resources:

School Counselor Toolkit. This comprehensive School Counselors Toolkit offers activities and additional tips and resources to support more in-depth learning.